I reached out to a friend for a quote on some graphic design work I needed. He came back with a quote that was 2.5X what I expected, and I let him know it.

He reminded me that I wasn’t paying for his ability to wrangle a few pixels or tweak the things I can do myself…I’m paying for his taste and design expertise. His art.

Touché.

He’s exactly right, of course. He isn’t participating in the race to the bottom: he drew a line in the sand, made something up, and takes his craft seriously enough to charge what he’s worth.